Animal feeders of various types are well-known and many constructions have been employed attempting to improve the flow of feed to the animal in the most efficient manner. Many suggested solutions involve relatively expensive and complex constructions. However, those feeders of a type employing large rectangular storage bins above a trough area and utilizing gravity flow are still among the most widely employed. Most of these commercially used feeders still require manual adjustment in a time consuming, laborious and cumbersome process.
For example, typically in order to adjust the feed gate, several bolts, as many as 18 to 24, must be loosened, and the bar raised or lowered as desired. The bolts must then be tightened again. In most instances this procedure requires two persons to accomplish the adjustment since one person must hold the bar while the other tightens the many bolts.
The rate of the flow of feed into the trough compartments is, of course, dependent largely on the size of the feed gate opening. Since the feeds used often develop lumps or clumps, the users tend to set the feed gate opening at a position greater than necessary to supply the animals with a sufficient amount to reduce the incidence of clogging by these lumps. This practice results in a tremendous amount of wasted feed as the animals tend to spill the feed on the ground after satisfying their hunger since the trough fills so quickly.
The difficulty and inconvenience of adjusting the feed gate opening as described above is therefore a cause of expensive and unnecessary waste of animal feed. Prior art solutions have failed to satisfactorily solve this problem by providing an inexpensive construction which is operated in an easy and quick manner.
The improved construction of the present invention permits the user to quickly and easily adjust the feed gate opening such that any clogging can be readily remedied by opening the gate and then easily readjusting it to the proper setting to restore the appropriate rate once the lumps have passed through, as well as make other adjustments dependent upon the need of the animals. Therefore the animals are not deprived of food for any significant time period and a proper feed flow can be more easily maintained in a manner which prompts the user to reduce unnecessary waste.